Medicine: Estrogen for Miscarriage

Three successive spontaneous abortions are an almost infallible sign that a normal pregnancy is unlikely without medical aid. Obstetricians seeking the cause of such abortions have found many. Among them: external, physical influence (hot baths, long train rides, falls); malformation of internal organs; deficient hormone activity.

Manhattan Obstetrician Raphael Kurzrok believes that a large number of miscarriages are caused by “genital hypoplasia” (malformation plus deficient hormone activity). His analysis: in some women, because of insufficient output of estrogen (a female hormone) during pregnancy, expansion of the uterus fails to keep pace with growth of the fetus. Rupture of the membrane and miscarriage result.

To genital hypoplasia sufferers who desperately want to become mothers, Dr. Kurzrok holds out new hope: hormone therapy. In the current New York State Journal of Medicine he reports on the treatment of 42 women with previous histories of repeated miscarriages. After a daily dose of estrogen throughout the months of pregnancy, 39 gave birth to normal children; two had miscarriages for other reasons than genital hypoplasia, one for an undetermined cause.